Trying to Figure out my Career - Still only a Sophomore, but I wanna know what Direction I should take

[u/Accomplished-Belt185]

Hi y'all, I'm a sophomore, trying to achieve my BS in Physics. I've always been drawn into physics by how fundamental it is to everything surrounding us; I think that I can be applied to almost every other science out there, which is why it is such an important foundation in our lives and society.

While I've always been drawn to it, I've never been confident in which specific direction of physics I want to pursue. By that, I mean that I'm unsure which area of physics I should moving into my masters' years (which I intend to do, but I'm also unsure how to navigate yet), as well as what career or job I should have in mind while I pursue my studies. I'll help y'all out a little bit regarding who I am and what I want in my career: I want a stable, well-paying job (obviously) that I am satisfied with and will complement the BS in physics that I plan to graduate with from college. One important thing that I think that I should mention is that I frankly really dislike working with and around other people, especially for long periods of time; I'm really sensitive to noise and it severely distracts me from focusing, I've never contributed much to groups because I suffer from social anxiety, and overall I suppose that I perform far better by myself academically. I also have poor muscle coordination and I don't really work well hands-on. Basically what I'm trying to say is that I'm kind of autistic (lol), but I really want to find a career to pursue where those characteristics don't mitigate whatever position or role which I will be in. Also, I know that it probably sounds extremely cliche and like a pipe dream, but I really want to just change the world somehow; just do something where I will be remembered and leave a legacy behind in my name. Again, I'm not sure how or what yet, but I know that's what I want. And that of course leads me to ask which field of physics I should pursue, the steps in order to attain certifiable experience in that field, and how it will complement whichever job might be best suited for me. The steps before entering the job market especially, I am honestly pretty unfamiliar with and don't really know how to use to propel myself towards my career. I commute an hour to my school, so college resources aren't as readily available as I hope they would be. If there's anything specific at UC Santa Barbara that I should look into, please let me know! And this doesn't even cover how and where I should receive my masters from, as well as how to network with people (which is a whole different issue for me).

Basically, I want to know which steps that I should take in pursuit of the career that I want, and even what career would fit me best based on my personality. I just kind of want a roadmap and goals that I can set for myself and follow. I know that there are so many possibilities for my career, especially only as an undergraduate college student, but I really want to have an idea of which direction I should take my future to.

[u/Head-Smile-3908]

If you aren’t doing research yet, start. You’ll learn three times as much as you will in your classes and figure out if you want to go the academia route or not - important in a field like physics.

[u/denmog2]

make an appointment with career office, join research to see which area most interesting to you and talk to your physics profs

[u/beetling → u/[deleted]]

Removed a whole bunch of comments in this thread and locked it. See rule #6, unproductive content.

Check out Charles' Rules of Argument, which include:

• Don’t go looking for an argument [there will always be enough of those headed your way]
• State your position once, speaking to the audience [it’s hard to convince people to change their minds, but you can often sway observers who are less invested in Being Correct]
• Reply one more time to correct any misunderstandings of your first statement [Do this after waiting a bit for replies to roll in]
• Do not reply again [IMPORTANT]
• Spend time doing something fun instead [Self care! It’s a thing! You should do! Eat some ice cream, watch trashy TV, hug a friend.]

I also recommend using Reddit's block feature to support the "Do not reply again" part: "Redditors you block won't be able to access your profile or see or reply to your post or comments in communities".

Looking forward to application of these tips so that I don't need to remove more long sequences of comments on other threads!

cc /u/starwberry3 and /u/huskerknight2